Harry takes a leaf out of Albert’s book
LONDON: When Prince Harry turned jewellery designer to create Meghan Markle’s engagement ring, he was following a royal tradition.
For his greatgreat- great-greatgrandfather, Prince Albert was renowned for the gifts he designed for Queen Victoria.
Now one of his most cherished tokens of love is to feature in the ITV drama Victoria, before going on display in Kensington Palace.
A scene in the two-hour Christmas special shows Albert, played by Tom Hughes, handing over a spectacular emerald and diamond coronet to Victoria (Jenna Coleman)
In return, the queen hands over an equally striking present – a portrait of herself in an intimate pose, her tresses falling over her bare shoulders.
Perhaps surprisingly, this was a genuine portrait, and unusually revealing for 1843, when it was painted. In Victoria’s words, it would become “my darling Albert’s favourite picture”. The queen wrote: “I felt so happy and proud to have found something that gave him so much pleasure.”
In actual fact the “secret picture” was given to Albert for his 24th birthday – two years before he presented her with the tiara featured in the TV show. But it was far from the first item of jewellery the prince had designed for her.
Victoria’s writer, Daisy Goodwin, told The Mail on Sunday: “I was so entranced by the tiara. It was such wonderful craftsmanship. Albert took extraordinary pains to create beautiful things for Victoria. It was an evocation of their relationship.
“One of the things I wanted to show in the Christmas special was the care and time they put into giving gifts to each other. They didn’t just go down to the shops and buy some Christmas socks,” she added.